Author(s)

BABRA DURI, CINA VAN ZYL

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate public attitudes towards sustainable urban transport in the City of Tshwane in order to develop guidelines for sustainable urban transport. The number of households owning private cars increased approximately from 22.9% in 2003 to 28.5% in 2013. Geographical location is used for quota sampling so that all the seven regions in the Tshwane could be represented. The total sample size of the study is (N=418). Primary data is gathered by a structured questionnaire while the Likert scale method was employed to get public attitudes regarding sustainable urban transport. The City of Tshwane in South Africa had the largest increase in population using private cars between 2003 and 2013 of approximately 11.3%, hence there is a need to shift from private cars to sustainable modes of transport. The findings of the research revealed that private cars are the most frequently used mode of transport in the City of Tshwane. The results also indicated that the majority of the residents of the City of Tshwane had a negative attitude towards sustainable transport modes and it was attributed to safety, reliability and convenience concerns. Finally, the paper provides recommendations on how the city planners need to implement transport initiatives that can improve the service quality and safety features of sustainable transport modes. The findings presented in this study provide useful insights to the city planners to secure sustainable urban transportation in the City of Tshwane.

Keywords

urban transport, sustainable transport, cycling, public transport, private car